Lauren Keen-Hawkins, an amateur jockey who suffered a heavy fall in the last race at Worcester on Sunday, is in critical care in a Birmingham hospital with a serious head injury.
Riding Faerie Cutlass, for her boss Kim Bailey, Cheltenham-based Keen-Hawkins, 22, fell at the third last in the handicap hurdle when her mount stepped at the obstacle and appeared also to take a kick from a horse behind her while on the ground.
She was attended by medical staff behind green screens at the course and was eventually driven to hospital by ambulance. An air ambulance arrived at Worcester but was stood down.
Bailey, who was at Lord’s for the Test match on Sunday with his son Archie who plays cricket for Gloucestershire, said on Monday: “She came to us on work experience from school and has stayed to become an integral part of the yard. She rides work, she schools horses, she drives the horsebox, she works hard. She loves her racing and her riding.
“If ever we need a horse schooling and there isn’t a professional jockey about, she’d do it. She’s one of those people every yard longs for and we desperately hope she comes back in one piece from this.”
Though not vastly experienced at race-riding and claiming the 7lb allowance, Keen-Hawkins is a competent rider with a lot of experience of schooling at home. She has also ridden in plenty of point-to-points and finished second at Worcester on Faerie Cutlass in July on their previous start together, having just moved into contention on the final bend when the fall happened.
A statement from the Injured Jockeys Fund said: “Amateur jockey Lauren Keen-Hawkins had a fall in the last race at Worcester Racecourse yesterday and was taken by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
Lauren has suffered a serious head injury and is now in critical care. Her parents and partner are with her and they kindly ask for privacy at this difficult time.”
Keen-Hawkins’ fall follows Dorset-based Alice Procter, 21, who is still in hospital after sustaining a spinal injury in a fall at Cartmel on July 20.
Meanwhile, at Craon in France runners in the two and a half mile Prix Lesieur had to swerve around a car parked in front of the third last. The field was able to avoid it without accident..
But the incident came just 24 hours after groundsmen at the same track forgot to move white tape acting as a temporary rail in the amateur cross-country race, which wiped out half the field.
Coming just after a sharp bend, horses and riders had no time to react, although British jockey Fred Tett’s mount managed to jump the tape. A number of others were unable to change course and slid underneath it. The race was subsequently voided.
